Quotations from George Santayana, 1863-1952

Beauty
as we feel it is something indescribable: what it is or what it means can
never be said.The Sense of Beauty [1896], pt. IV, Expression

Beauty is
a pledge of the possible conformity between the soul and nature, and consequently
a ground of faith in the supremacy of the good.The Sense of Beauty [1896], pt. IV, Expression

Happiness
is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a
mad and lamentable experiment.The Life of Reason [1905-1906], vol. I, Reason in Common Sense

That life
is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and, were it not assumed,
the most impossible of conclusions.The Life of Reason [1905-1906], vol. I, Reason in Common Sense

Fanaticism
consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.The Life of Reason [1905-1906], vol. I, Reason in Common Sense

Those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.The Life of Reason [1905-1906], vol. I, Reason in Common Sense

The highest
form of vanity is love of fame.The Life of Reason [1905-1906], vol. II, Reason in Society

Let a man
once overcome his selfish terror at his own finitude, and his finitude is,
in one sense, overcome.The Ethics of Spinoza [1910], introduction

Perhaps the
only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.The Ethics of Spinoza [1910], introduction

Miracles
are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated
to be readily understood.The Ethics of Spinoza [1910], introduction

The Bible
is literature, not dogma.The Ethics of Spinoza [1910], introduction

England is
the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies, hobbies,
and humors.Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies [1922]. The British Character

There
is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies [1922]. War Shrines

My atheism,
like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only
gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human
interests.Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies [1922]. On My Friendly Critics

Profound
skepticism is favorable to conventions, because it doubts that the criticism
of conventions is any truer than they are.Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies [1922]. On My Friendly Critics

The young
man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is
a fool.Dialogues in Limbo [1926], ch. 3

Religion
in its humility restores man to his only dignity, the courage to live by
grace.Dialogues in Limbo [1926], ch. 4